This book contributes to the understanding of smallholder agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa through addressing the dynamics of intensification and diversification within and outside agriculture, in ...
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This book contributes to the understanding of smallholder agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa through addressing the dynamics of intensification and diversification within and outside agriculture, in contexts where women have much poorer access to agrarian resources than men. It uses a longitudinal cross-country comparative approach, relying on the Afrint dataset—unique household-level longitudinal data for six African countries collected over the period 2002–2013/15. The book first descriptively summarizes findings from the third wave of the dataset. The book nuances the current dominance of structural transformation narratives of agricultural change by adding insights from gender and village-level studies of agrarian change. It argues that placing agrarian change within broader livelihood dynamics outside agriculture, highlighting country- and region-specific contexts is an important analytical adaptation to the empirical realities of rural Africa. From the policy perspective, this book provides suggestions for more inclusive rural development policies, outlining the weaknesses of present policies illustrated by the currently gendered inequalities in access to agrarian resources. The book also provides country-specific insights from Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania, and Zambia.Less

Agriculture, Diversification, and Gender in Rural Africa : Longitudinal Perspectives from Six Countries

Published in print: 2018-01-18

This book contributes to the understanding of smallholder agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa through addressing the dynamics of intensification and diversification within and outside agriculture, in contexts where women have much poorer access to agrarian resources than men. It uses a longitudinal cross-country comparative approach, relying on the Afrint dataset—unique household-level longitudinal data for six African countries collected over the period 2002–2013/15. The book first descriptively summarizes findings from the third wave of the dataset. The book nuances the current dominance of structural transformation narratives of agricultural change by adding insights from gender and village-level studies of agrarian change. It argues that placing agrarian change within broader livelihood dynamics outside agriculture, highlighting country- and region-specific contexts is an important analytical adaptation to the empirical realities of rural Africa. From the policy perspective, this book provides suggestions for more inclusive rural development policies, outlining the weaknesses of present policies illustrated by the currently gendered inequalities in access to agrarian resources. The book also provides country-specific insights from Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania, and Zambia.

Reconstructing Solidarity is a book about unions’ struggles against the expansion of precarious work in Europe, and the implications of these struggles for worker solidarity and institutional change. ...
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Reconstructing Solidarity is a book about unions’ struggles against the expansion of precarious work in Europe, and the implications of these struggles for worker solidarity and institutional change. The authors argue against the ‘dualization’ thesis that unions act primarily to protect labour market insiders at the expense of outsiders, finding instead that most unions attempt to organize and represent precarious workers. They explain differences in union success in terms of how they build, or fail to build, inclusive worker solidarity, in countries or industries with more or less inclusive institutions. Where unions can limit employers’ ability to ‘exit’ from labour market institutions and collective agreements and build solidarity across different groups of workers, this results in a virtuous circle, establishing union control over the labour market. Where they fail to do so, it sets in motion a vicious circle of expanding precarity based on institutional evasion by employers. The book builds its argument on comparative case studies from Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Slovenia, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. Contributors describe the struggles of workers and unions in diverse industries such as local government, music, metalworking, chemicals, meatpacking, and logistics.Less

Published in print: 2018-01-18

Reconstructing Solidarity is a book about unions’ struggles against the expansion of precarious work in Europe, and the implications of these struggles for worker solidarity and institutional change. The authors argue against the ‘dualization’ thesis that unions act primarily to protect labour market insiders at the expense of outsiders, finding instead that most unions attempt to organize and represent precarious workers. They explain differences in union success in terms of how they build, or fail to build, inclusive worker solidarity, in countries or industries with more or less inclusive institutions. Where unions can limit employers’ ability to ‘exit’ from labour market institutions and collective agreements and build solidarity across different groups of workers, this results in a virtuous circle, establishing union control over the labour market. Where they fail to do so, it sets in motion a vicious circle of expanding precarity based on institutional evasion by employers. The book builds its argument on comparative case studies from Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Slovenia, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. Contributors describe the struggles of workers and unions in diverse industries such as local government, music, metalworking, chemicals, meatpacking, and logistics.

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